The one requirement The Strokes had for recording their debut album
The state of modern rock was completely different from what The Strokes had in mind in the early 2000s. While the group’s style of rough-and-ready garage rock had earned them a large following in the home city of New York, most people saw guitar rock as either nü metal or pop punk during the turn of the millennium. Whether it was out of survival or ignorance, The Strokes put the blinders on, kept spinning Lou Reed records, and sought to redefine the public’s view of the genre.
When the band entered Transporterraum Studios in early 2001, they knew who they wanted behind the desk. That would be producer Gordon Raphael, who had produced the band’s debut EP, The Modern Age. But their record company had someone else in mind: Gil Norton, the British producer most famous for producing records by the Pixies and Foo Fighters. The attempt to make The Strokes’ sound slicker didn’t go over well with the band, who pushed to return to the studio with Raphael.
“For some reason, they just felt that because of the way my basement was presented, which was pretty comfortable and pretty funky, that was where they wanted to party and make music,” Raphael told Sound on Sound in 2002.
He added: “The first time we met, I think it was Julian who said, ‘We want to sound like a band from the past that took a time trip into the future to make their record’. Maybe some producers would be thinking about what they need to do to make something radio-friendly or make sure that the A&R guy loves the way it is mixed while presenting the band with the most professional, state-of-the-art approach.”
“I think I like to identify what the most interesting and important sounds are and make sure they are heard loud and clear,” Raphael continued. “The Strokes had already announced to me that they wanted to take what was happening in music and go in a completely different direction, doing something that wouldn’t sound like it was made today. That was one of the prerequisites mentioned in our first meeting.”
It didn’t take long for the band to record Is This It: two months for recording and mixing. By and large, Raphael recorded the band live with minimal overdubs. Julian Casablancas was often in the room as well, singing into a Peavy practice amp that gave his vocals a distorted and unique sound.
The result would be unlike anything else that had been released, but The Strokes weren’t alone either. A whole scene began to emerge around them of similar-minded rock traditionalists.
